Skip to main content

Play the Planet of the Apes game that time forgot after watching the new movie

Bryn in Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier
The Imaginarium

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters this weekend. If you were hoping to find ways to spend more time in that world through video games, your options are surprisingly slim. Your only easy option is Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier. This is a game I’ve seen almost no one talk about since it was released, but it’s a fascinating title that warrants a revisit.

Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier is set in the universe of this rebooted Planet of the Apes saga and is essentially a playable movie where players make choices to affect the narrative. It was even made by The Imaginarium, a production company founded by motion capture master Andy Serkis. Released for PS4 in 2017 before coming to PC and Xbox in 2018, Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier barely mustered much attention at and after its release.

Recommended Videos

It got mixed reviews, had an incredibly low concurrent player count on Steam, and requires some workarounds to get up and running if you aren’t playing on a console nowadays. Although Last Frontier is only seven years old at this point, it feels like the Planet of the Apes video game that time forgot. That’s a shame because Last Frontier is actually much better than its middling reviews

Fear itself

Last Frontier tells a standalone story that takes place in the midst of the war between Apes and humans in the wake of Caesar’s uprising and the spread of the Simian Flu. It follows two central characters, an ape named Bryn and a human named Jess. Bryn is part of a tribe of apes that broke off from Caesar and found refuge in a mountain; unfortunately, their food supply is starting to run very low. Meanwhile, Jess is trying to assert herself as the leader of a small community of humans after her husband’s passing.

A choice in Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.
The Imaginarium

While Bryn and Jess’ journeys start separate, they eventually collide as Bryn’s tribe gets more desperate and starts to search for food in human territory. On the other side, ape hunters roll up to Jess’ town and offer to help deal with them. Last Frontier is a game about fear and how it influences our actions. Bryn and Jess’ respective communities were struggling but at least surviving on their own, but fear of the other fuels destructive tendencies that eventually put the two groups in conflict.

Last Frontier tells a personal, intimate story like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, rather than the summer blockbuster Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is. It’s backed up by fantastic performances realized through performance capture that make the game look pretty amazing even years later. Neil Newbon, who you may recognize as Game Awards winner and voice actor of Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3, delivers an excellent performance as Bryn in particular.

More Bandersnatch than Life is Strange

Last Frontier features an enthralling story that I wish I could talk with more people about. Unfortunately, it didn’t really catch on, and I think I can chalk that up to how it plays. I called Last Frontier a lost Planet of the Apes movie earlier because it essentially is one. It lasts just over three hours with very limited interaction. Every minute or two, a dialogue choice will appear on screen, and players have to make a decision that affects the story in a small or big way. Occasionally, players have to press a button to shoot a gun too. In terms of interaction, that’s it.

Shooting a gun in Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.
The Imaginarium

Last Frontier is much more similar to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch or As Dusk Falls in how it lets players interact rather than a more traditional narrative adventure title from a studio like Telltale or Deck Nine. At the time, reviews seemed to dislike that, as they wanted more interaction. Seven years and countless more narrative-focused games later, it’s not much of an issue. I got invested in completing Last Frontier the same way I get invested in TV shows: I binged it after work hours over the course of two days.

That makes me wonder if Last Frontier would’ve had more success if it was sold as an interactive animated movie on Netflix rather than a gorgeous, but restrictive, game on PS4, PC, and Xbox One. It’s a shame it’s a bit difficult to get up and running on PC nowadays, but the console versions should be much easier to boot up. If you’ve enjoyed this new era of Planet of the Apes but haven’t checked out Last Frontier, then Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes gives you the perfect excuse to rediscover this underrated game.

Topics
Tomas Franzese
As a Gaming Staff Writer at Digital Trends, Tomas Franzese reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
New Atari 50 DLC shows the Intellivision acquisition is already paying off
An Atari 2600+ sits on a table.

Digital Eclipse's Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration is an excellent and comprehensive look back at the company's now classic video game lineup, with games to play and extra content to interact with. So far, it's gotten one DLC: The Wider World of Atari, that added even more titles. Now, it's about to get its second, thanks to an acquisition it made earlier this year.

Atari announced The First Console War on Friday, and it's about, as you can guess, the company's first console war with the Intellivision, although it'll touch on a specific element of it. In the 1980s, Mattel was publishing games on the Intellivision. At some point, it decided to release versions of these console exclusives for its main competitor, the Atari 2600, under the M Network label. There are 19 of these games coming to Atari 50 with The First Console War, which is set to launch on November 8 for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4 Atari 50 owners.

Read more
Is Monster Hunter Wilds cross-platform?
Two hunters ride mounts in Monster Hunter Wilds.

Of all the genres that we think need to be on the list of cross-platform games, hunting games like Monster Hunter Wilds have to be near the top. These are a rather unique style of game compared to the likes of Fallout 76, Genshin Impact, or Stardew Valley. Each of those has cooperative or competitive elements to them that are enhanced by cross-platform support, but nothing like what Monster Hunter Wilds has going on. The game will allow you to call in NPCs to help you on the hunt, but these games are best when you get a group of real friends together and embark on an epic quest to slay a giant beast, scavenge it for parts, and return to camp victorious. Monster Hunter Rise eventually got cross-platform support once it was ported off the Switch, but will Monster Hunter Wilds launch with this feature? Here's what you need to know about cross-platform support in one of our most anticipated upcoming games.
Is Monster Hunter Wilds cross-platform?

Monster Hunter Wilds will only have partial cross-platform support. The good news is that the part that it will have is crossplay, meaning that you and friends on either PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or PC can all hunt together with no issues. This feature can be disabled if you wish, but will be enabled by default to make sure desperate hunters can always find some aid when in need.

Read more
Fortnite Chapter 2 Remix teams up with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and more
Snoop Dogg in Fortnite.

Fortnite’s new season, Chapter 2 Remix, is getting a star-studded event that will run through November. The music-focused event will see the battle royale partnering with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and more artists to remix the game’s map each week.

The new announcement is the next phase of Epic’s goal to turn Fortnite into the “ultimate hub for social entertainment experiences,” as a representative from Epic explained during a press event. The game has had several musical collaborations previously, including the Guitar Hero-like Fortnite Festival mode that launched last year. This update brings that idea to the next level by partnering with four musical superstars.

Read more